The historic record, then, does not reveal the U.S. economy in 1929 poised for the deepest plunge in history because of any trend to “underconsumption.” Nor does it show consumption being choked by “fundamental weaknesses” in income distribution, or the flow of wages relative to profits. To understand why the Great Depression originated, or why it continued so endlessly, requires more than simple hypotheses of underconsumption and inequality.